International studio (30.1906/1907(1907))

Mr. Brangwyns Royal Exchange Panel


STUDY OF FIGURE FOR ROYAL EXCHANGE PANEL
BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A.
who has an infinite fund of knowledge, but with
a power of reserve enabling him to use but a
fraction of this fund.
As one looks at this space, so sumptuous in its
embellishment, one cannot but be impressed with
the feeling of vastness it possesses, with the
immensity of the size of his accessories, and with
the powerful lines, slow in rhythm, of the strong
men moving about.
The incidents occurring in the picture tell of the
expenditure of untold human energy, yet free from
that spirit which complains of the hardships of
human toil. Indeed, the composition is so full of
life and light and action that the beholder must
feel the joy of living expressed—a genuine pleasure
which only healthy, wholesome toil can give. It
is vastly human in its expression; but more than
that, one must feel the power of those long straight
lines which shoot upward into the blue light of
the heavens, backed as they are by the silvery
cumuli slowly rising from the grey and golden
envelopment below.
Nor is this noteworthy achievement the result
of a short period of the artist’s effort. Days and
months have been given to the composition alone,
followed by an assiduous collecting of material. An
immense number of studies for figuresand accessories
were made, both in black-and-white and in colour.

But of the effort, and how well he has concealed
it, will be known only to those who see the work
in its place. The accompanying reproduction
of course gives but an inadequate idea of the
effect, for the brilliant orange-yellows and greens
occurring in the foreground could not be effectually
rendered in a photograph.
The great juxtaposition of light and shadow Mr.
Brangwyn has ever kept in mind, and, although the
parts are painted with a dexterity of handling to
which few modern painters attain, yet not once in
the whole composition has he shown that the
incident has interested him at the expense of the
whole. There is, even in his first small sketch, a
unity of feeling which could not have been sur-
passed. It seems to me that herein lies the proof
of his greatest power, and that such results can
come only from the man whose methods of work
are as fixed as those of the architect, from a man
whose sense of construction is as strong as that
of the builder, and withal, whose feeling for
design and colour might in its refinement be
likened to that of the early Japanese.
The panel is the gift of Mr. T. L. Devitt,
President ot the Shipping Federation, who has
been instrumental in placing many commissions
in the hands of the younger painters and sculptors.
Arthur S. Covey.


STUDY OF FIGURE FOR ROYAL EXCHANGE PANEL
BY FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A.

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